Reincarnation to the Past

Chapter 30

A/N: I just realized that I've written about half as many chapters for RTTP (34) as the total number for HIWSI (61). And I'm still at the beginning of this book...

Anyway, this is a pretty small chapter so I decided to upload it together with the previous one, so enjoy. Don't forget to vote, comment and follow.

Li Yǔ's POV

Wow, I must have seriously let down my guard for someone to have been able to steal something from me without me even noticing. Either that or I've gotten too overconfident. I could tell his qi belonged to that of Hermes—the speed and the deft thievery—and only someone who is either a child of Hermes or someone who holds his qi can do that. But even with that, nobody, not even the strongest of his children, has been able to successfully steal something from me. So does that mean I drop my guard to such an extent around Lì?

I wasn't too worried about the bag being stolen since anything I pulled out or stuffed in went directly into the space in my ring. I just used it to hide the fact that I could pull out or create stuff out of thin air. So basically, the bag's empty... And that's when it hit me: The bag is empty!

I masked my worry and watched as the man ruffled through the bag, turned it upside down, and shook it so hard I thought it would fling out of his grasp before tossing it to the floor. "IT'S EMPTY!", he exclaimed in annoyance and disbelief.

And just like that, the cat was out of the bag (pun not intended), and everyone was staring at me threateningly, having seen me slip it into the bag only for it to disappear. I let out a sigh, deciding that since the secret was out, why not flaunt it?

So the only remaining question is: stink bomb or sleeping gas grenade? Although... I also have tear gas grenades, and then there is Greek fire, but that would be too excessive, although tempting since my pride had taken a hit and payback sounded so good...

"Where is the treasure??? Just give it to me and I'll let you all go...", came a voice from the crowd, Wang QinZheng's voice to be exact. I tried to suppress my growing smirk as the crowd inched towards us from all sides. Lì and Bai Zou steadied their weapons defensively, Lì moving closer to me while Bai Zou pushed his brother to his side. Right before anything escalated further, I raised my hand in surrender.

"WAIT!", I exclaimed, feigning fear. "I'll give you what you want! Just please let us go!", I held out my right hand and a stink bomb from my space appeared on my outstretched palm, its true appearance masked by the mist. Lì shot me a look that said, 'What the hell are you doing!!!' which I returned with a 'Just trust me...' look, which luckily he understood. He slowly lowered his weapon.

I created a small shield, made out of water, around the four of us to prevent us from breathing in the gas. I then took aim and thrust the bomb as far as I could. Just as I expected, everyone rushed towards it, almost including Bai Ze but Lì held him back and shook his head. After five seconds, the bomb burst, letting out the horrendous smell of a combination of a hundred rotten eggs, bloated dead whales, and the stench of lesser anteaters and skunks. From the way Lì and the other two scrunched up their noses, I could tell that even they could faintly smell it so imagine how bad it was for those outside the water shield...

Without missing a beat, I summoned a sleeping gas grenade on one hand and the tear gas grenade on the other, and using my mouth, I pulled out the safety pin from the pull ring and tossed it onto the gathered crowd.

The three gases combined and filled the entire room. Everyone was gasping for fresh air and at the same time trying to hold their breaths to keep the rotten smell out, tearing up, coughing, groaning, gagging, hurling, or falling unconscious. I willed the waters to surround the four of us and transport us to the outside world (I can use water to transport to any water body, from a sea to a lake or even a tiny puddle, as long as I am familiar with it).

And the last thing that each of those remaining conscious, who were suffocating from the three gases, saw was the victorious smirk plastered on my face as the water swirled around us before splashing flat onto the floor, with the four of us nowhere in sight...